CARTEL-EPHONE

Empathize with Chicago publicist Marilyn Liss, who reports her cellular phone number was "cloned" three times in a six-week span. She got a $1,700 phone bill, 20 feet long, for calls she didn't make.

Cloners sweep the air with radio scanners to reel in personal codes beeped by mobile phones at the start of every call. The pirates then program phones with these codes, tricking the computer into billing you for their calls. The cellular industry absorbs the fraud-at a cost of up to $300 million a year, Cellular One says. Biggest parasites are said to be drug dealers, so you can rest easy knowing your flip phone may be helping the Medellin Cartel.

Liss figured something was up when she and her husband started getting hundreds of calls from strangers who asked them cryptic questions, "like if we knew Gary or Bob. When we didn't answer right, they hung up. We figure they were using code words to place orders." Sometimes there were threats. "One guy said: `I know who you are. Get off this line or I'm coming after you.' That's when I got scared."